The SMU men’s golf team, ranked 44th nationally, finished their final round on Tuesday in Houston.
They finished the tournament with a final combined score of 857.
The Mustangs started the tournament worse than they’ would have liked, recording a 290 on the first day, which put the team tied for seventh place.
SMU bounced back nicely, though, scoring a 281 on the second round, and finally a 286 in the third.
While a combined 857 was good enough for fourth for the Mustangs, Texas A&M shot an 845 to place third, North Texas had 842 at second and Arkansas finished first with 841.
Individuals that competed in the tournament for the Mustangs included Marc Sambol, Matt Schovee, Max Buckley, Harry Higgs and Sam Fidone.
Of the 81 competitors, Higgs finished sixth and Sambol finished in a three-way tie for seventh.
Although these two finished close to each other at the end of the third round, their scorecards look dramatically different.
Higgs went into the third round in a tie for fifteenth place, shooting -2 and even in the first and second rounds.
On the final day, Higgs greatly improved his position by shooting -3 and jumping up nine spots in the rankings.
Sambol, on the other hand, came into the third round tied for third place, shooting one under and five under on the first two rounds.
In the last round, Sambol went two over, which dropped the senior down four spots to seventh.
Other finishes for the Mustangs included Buckley finishing in a tie for 29th, Schovee finishing in a tie for 42nd and Fidone finishing in a tie for 70th.
The individual winner of the tournament was Geoff Shaw, out of Texas A&M, who finished three rounds at a total of eleven under.
Shaw was consistent and played well through all three rounds, but did not record the single best round score.
This lowest 18-hole score was held by Arkansas’ Sabastian Cappelen, who shot a 65 in the second round.
This 65 tied an All-American Intercollegiate record, as only seven players in the tournament’s history have posted a score that low.
The Mustangs will next compete in the Robert Kepler Intercollegiate, held in Colombus, Ohio, on April 14 and April 15.
Following this, SMU’s final competition will be the Conference USA Championship in Texarkana, Arkansas.
The C-USA Championship will begin on April 22 and go through April 24.
In last year’s season, SMU finished in a tie for eighth in the C-USA Championship. The team was led by standout Kelly Kraft, who later won the U.S. Amateur in August. This earned him a spot in this year’s Masters, U.S. Open and British Open. At the Masters this weekend, Kraft finished 62nd.
